MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/26 Quick pitch

Prior to Friday’s game, Lou Piniella was asked if he was comfortable with the way the Cubs pitching is set up for 2010.

“Our pitching is pretty well intact,” Piniella said. “I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen as far as [next year] — that’s Jim’s department, is all I’m trying to say. The nucleus of our pitching is here and I’m quite comfortable with a lot of these young kids. I’ve expressed that feeling to our general manager. They’ve gotten a chance to pitch a lot and I like what I see, quite honestly.”

Looking ahead, the Cubs rotation would be Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly, Randy Wells, possibly Tom Gorzelanny. This season, the only pitcher returning to the bullpen was Carlos Marmol. For 2010, Marmol will be the closer and could be joined in the pen by Jeff Stevens, Sean Marshall, Aaron Heilman, Justin Berg, David Patton and Esmailin Caridad. It’s hard to say where Jeff Samardzija fits, and whether he needs more time in the Minors.

John Grabow, Kevin Gregg and Rich Harden are free agents.

Cubs pitchers have held opponents to three or less runs in each of the last eight games, posting a 2.14 ERA. In those eight games, the starters have six quality starts and are 3-1 with a 2.18 ERA.

Some follow-up notes on Zambrano’s two-hit shutout over the Giants on Friday:

* It was Big Z’s 10th complete game, and first since his no-hitter Sept. 14, 2008, against Houston at Miller Park. Four of his 10 CGs have been shutouts.

* Friday’s game was the first nine-inning complete game for a Cubs pitcher. Sean Marshall was credited with a CG in a rain-shortened five-inning start May 26 against Pittsburgh.

2 Comments

I keep hearing that the cubs are going to try trading Carlos Zambrano. To me that would be the second biggest mistake sense Lee Brock. And also i hear about trading D Lee and Aramis Ramirez there core players . If they do iam done with the cubs. And thats a FACT.. written by John

I wouldn’t go as far as being done with the Cubs if they traded Lee or Ramirez, it would depend on what we received in return. Is Vetters close to being ready at third? Can Fox/Hoffpauir platoon at first?? But the chances are Hendry would not be able to pull off an advantagous deal for the Cubs over the winter, he would be better off trading those two closer to the 2010 trading deadline to a team in more of a desperate need for good hitters. I would be more concerned with Hendry trading Lee, Ramirez or Zambrano just to dump some salary, trying to “balance” out the bad money he wasted on Soriano and Bradley. Either way Hendry does not instill any confidence in me to right HIS listing ship. There you go Carrie, didn’t take long…the devil is winning out.

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